blue skies, nothing but blue skies...
...& some fluff
flying thingys
peekaboo?
that's way over my head
flying thingys
peekaboo?
that's way over my head
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
the boys wanna go out. Sunday, March 11, 2012
a bit of Sunday fun
Dog Vs Cat, and a coupla mice to boot...
we lost an hour overnight...has anybody seen it?
we lost an hour overnight...has anybody seen it?Saturday, March 10, 2012
What happens to the hole, when the Qi is gone? part )
Mr. Big palmed the door and walked into the office. Whisper was standing at a Flixon wall mount looking over the view of his complex. Automated lectrucks and various workers were coming and going on the surface. Nothing out of the ordinary. “What's she doing now?” he asked Big and sipped from his glass, the ice tinkled as he tilted the goblet to his lips.
Big checked his tuner. “Banging on doors I imagine. No movement for four minutes.”
“And the hole dwellers?”
“There's an overall rise in Anti Qi output, but nothing dramatic to this point. We're diverting power to western substations so Indianapolis-One doesn't surge.”
Whisper changed the view and was looking out over a dark ocean scene. Waves were crashing into foam over a rocky beach. The Flixon was spattered with salty droplets that dissipated then vanished. He poured another drink and drained it quickly. “Have you located Parsnip yet? I want the overload circuit tested before this riot gets out of hand.”
Mr. Big shrugged his muscled shoulders. His stomach growled. “Are we going to have lunch or not?”
“Find that twit, then you'll eat, you big ape.” Whisper slammed down his glass and it skipped off the desk top and fell to the floor, shattering into pieces. He swore and grabbed the carafe by its neck. “Get lost, I have work to do.”
Big knew exactly what work the boss was after, the kind you found at the bottom of one bottle, then another. He backed out of the room and ran toward the machine cavern.
–
Nonon Parsnip was not to be found. He had been down in the hole forcing himself on his latest fancy. She obliged, leading him to a prearranged spot where the fun began.
Jeff had him by the throat and was shaking hard as he could. The area's blip reinforcer raced angrily over their conduits. He felt good, expressing rage as he hadn't done for months. A woman was crouched by the wall, and she jumped up and down, squealing with delight. Barry held hands over his own eyes and talked to himself. Nobody else would ever have listened. “He's had enough, I think,” said Barry quietly, until finally he let down his hands and shouted the words at Jeff.
“He's had enough!”
Jeff threw the swarthy little man down and kicked him. “That's a carrot if I ever saw one,” he said, laughing. Jeff leaned over Nonon Parsnip and ripped the chain off his neck. He wadded it up, key and all, and threw it over the railing into the dark abyss. “That's done.”
“What now?” asked Barry.
Parsnip moaned as Jeff rummaged around roughly through his clothing, then pulled out a scan disk. “To activate the lift,” he said grinning. “But first we get this party going. I mean really going.” The woman shrieked and ran into the tunnel, raising the alarm.
Tina sat heavily at the base of the ledge, knowing she was as good as useless. At this moment she was closer to despair than she had ever been. The revolt was starting, as planned, and now her part, the most important, was doomed to fail. Without access to the lifts, Tina would never be able to allow the hole dwellers an opportunity to escape. The revolt would be for nothing if she couldn't use her leverage, and the worst case scenario would see them all dead. Of course Felicon Whisper would escape, and the infamous Mr. Big, but she was sure nothing would come of it. They would vanish into the ether, sound as an eight-legged tardigrade in its orbiting cocoon.
Tina could hear the sounds of revolt coming out of a tunnel to her left. If the mob found her here she wouldn't last another minute, they'd pick her up and toss her into hell's mouth. She couldn't even imagine the horrors that waited below, would be glad to reach them as a dead woman. Tina pulled out the impact stick and checked it on. She would go out with a fury, feeding the grid in a flash of glory.
A rumble echoed into the chamber and the mob neared. Tina could see their shadows playing on the plumes of smoke that rose in a vortex from the depths. She inched up the wall and stood tall, holding the stick high in front of her face. Behind her the lift doors swished and opened.
“Tina, damn your geneflesh, get in here!” Jeff reached out and pulled her in just as the mob rounded the bend. She sank into his arms and cried when the doors shushed tight.
–
The uproar angered to a frenzy on the hole's first level. What few handlers there were, were either thrown over the railing or stripped bare and harassed. The key to the revolt, Tina had told them, wasn't to cause damage or murder, but to rage wholly without surcease for as long as possible. The sounds of insurrection resounded up the hole from every level until it echoed off the cavern walls in a melee of ear shattering cacophony. The railing surged with electric violence as the negative ions outpaced the network and lined up in staggering wedge before the grid's interceptor channels. Contraptions growing from the walls below level thirty-six sparked and threw pistons, the cavernous machine room billowed with smoke as the rotors whined. Inside the locked room, where the overload switch should be heating up and starting to melt, nothing worked as it was meant to. Instead, the heavy copper pole that Tina had wedged into the glass tubes place was shining like a god, throwing all the power of the raging thousand souls and more into the mix like an orchestra of devils and their titan henchmen.
Mr. Big searched the machine room finding nothing but ravening mechanics and electricians throwing their hands into the air and running for the doors. The only clue he found to Parsnip's whereabouts was a snide comment about his slumming in the hole. Big took off for the lifts. He jumped the unattended checkpoint and waved his scan key at the sensor. When the lift door opened he ran in, punched the mark for level one, then grabbed the impact hammer from his holster and a heavy knife from his belt. The lift shuddered and stopped suddenly, and the door opened. He heard a commotion, saw nothing but the ledge and railing before him, and stepped out. From nowhere a body fell at his feet, and Big tried to hurdle it, only to be blindsided from both ends by two burly men. He fell to the ground swinging madly and connecting. The sound of a crushing skull gave him cause to smile, but a mound of bodies swarmed over and crushed him to the ledge, his face was only inches from the drop off. Mr. Big squirmed under the mass of bodies and turned his head, only to see his missing mechanic looking back at him from dead eyes.
Jeff slapped Barry hard on the back and howled. “Now here's the real treasure, you bastards,” he swore and pressed his foot firmly into the big man's face. “He'll talk, yeah. He'll talk or go over the side, he will.”
–
Big had talked, and whatever happened next never made the light of day. Jeff traveled the distance from level one to thirty-six in mere seconds, his stomach flying up into his mouth with the furious descent. The doors opened just in time, and he pulled her back, then sent them soaring skyward. “Thank the gods,” was all she said after a minute. They floated gently to the upside.
“What now,” Jeff asked, releasing Tina from his embrace.
She thought. “First I need to get to the override circuit, make sure that weasel Parsnip hasn't nixed my replacement switch.”
“Ha,” laughed Jeff. “The little bitch won't have done that. I nixed his wagon myself.”
“Good.” The lift stopped and the door opened. Jeff started to step out, but Tina grabbed his hand. “Wait, before something else can futz up, I need to make sure of something.” She passed the scan disk over the lift wall and a latch opened. Tina fingered a lever and a red button lowered from a chamber above the compartment. She pushed the button and an alarm immediately sounded. “Get out,” she yelled and pushed him.
The door closed and Jeff looked at her. “What the hell was that?” A thunderous boom answered him as smoke flowed out from the shaking door's crevices. After a second the door reopened and they looked into the empty shaft. Bits of debris floated rapidly up the passageway. “That's a grav well!”
“You bet your sweet patootie.” She grabbed Jeff and planted a big kiss on his surprised lips. “Come on,” Tina hollered and pulled him down the hallway.
They took a diverted path around the machine cave and ran up a ramp toward the main offices. Every space they went through was deserted. Outside of the master's lair Tina stopped.
“We got his man, too,” boasted Jeff. “I wouldn't be surprised if he was sucking farts on a trip through the nine circles of hell right now.”
“Whoa,” Tina gave him deference. “Then lead the way, McDuff. But be careful, he might be loaded, but he's crafty!”
Jeff laughed, then pushed the door open gently while standing off to one side. Two shots rang off, striking the door jamb, then they heard the click of an empty chamber.
“Dog!” they heard Whisper call out woefully from inside.
Tina peeked around the corner. “Safe to come in, boss?” she asked cynically “Um, we're sort of in a hurry.” Jeff led the way, followed by Tina who pulled a key out of her pocket and dangled it in the air. Alarms were shrieking in the halls and the light arrays in Whisper's office flashed menacingly. Felicon tapped his desk and a line of numerals projected onto the wall. It was a countdown clock.
Twelve minutes, fifty-five seconds. Fifty-four seconds, fifty-three...
“You're coming with us,” said Tina as Jeff closed his fist around Whisper's collar. The energy czar didn't budge.
“I'm not moving.” He grabbed up a bottle and sloshed the contents into his mouth, spilling much of it down his chin. Jeff jumped back. “Your key won't help you now,” he slurred. “Too much now, too much power to stop. You've created a,” and Felicon winked, “monster. Get out,” he growled and flipped the bottle at them.
They got out, running for the machine room. “I gotta stop it, don't know if everyone can get out!” Tina yelled over the sirens and pounding machinery. Upside, the lift shafts were pushing hole dwellers up and out one a time, depositing them softly within feet of the openings. The escapees ran off toward the fences. Hundreds were rushing the gates and chopping at the enclosures with whatever tools they ascended with, or throwing debris from the launched lifts onto the ground to scramble over.
Tina couldn't know that, she and Jeff only had thoughts for Barry and the thousands who might be stranded in the hole. They sprinted to the override vault and Tina unlocked the door. Fire was spitting over the makeshift fuse, the current was so hot that copper was dripping into a golden puddle on the floor. Tina whipped out her contact stick and started flailing at the bar. After three strikes it fell through the rod and she stumbled forward behind the force of her blow. Jeff grabbed and pulled Tina back by her flashing AQi sash.
The bells and whistles continued to howl. Jeff and Tina stood and looked at each other, as if to say, what now? What else can we possibly do?
Nothing, Tina admitted to herself. She grabbed Jeff's hand and took off like a squirrel for nuts, dodging sparks and leaping flames for the upside transit. “We'll never make it,” she heard him yell. They ran, Jeff hurtled a railing enclosure and caught Tina as she vaulted it. The exit was within yards and Jeff screamed and pumped his fist in the air. “We're coming, Barry,” he shouted loudly.
--
He settled, and folded in the k-mesh wings of his flight suit, picturing her face against the backdrop of a perfect fall sunset. The air from the summit of the old fire tower was moist that night, and Jonathon Feagul watched as the mist formed a deep blanket of October haze over the island treetops. He was sitting on the corrugate roof, chewing on a stalk of wheat grass, when he heard the blast and from his perch saw the western sky light up. As the brightened sky began to dim, he could make out plumes of fire leaping in torrents from the earth. Below him the very ground began to rumble and from where he sat, Jonathon saw and heard the reservoir waters splashing and frothing. Suddenly towers of super heated water leaped skyward and the islands jumped, then settled and started to sink beneath the towering trees that abruptly burst into flames. The shock waves followed and tossed him, shattering the struts of his suit and Jonathon spilled to the earth, laying crumpled in the grass.
The Four Corners went dark, growing to light only where fires slowly ignited throughout the city, throwing demonic shadows onto the facades of skyscrapers. Years passed before a glimmer of the truth emerged, as the city repaired and renewed itself with a fresh identity and a healthy power source. Monuments were erected, statues unveiled. Deep in the heart of Indianapolis the mayor cut a yellow ribbon and spread his arms wide, welcoming his people into the newest landmark park. A tremendous green space and towering spire dedicated to the most revered unfortunates in the history of Vonneguts Four Corners.
Behind the spire in a thicket of briar hedge, lay a round brick patio, weathered and scorched by fire. It encircled a hole, dug deep and covered by a Klantien grate, for safety and to keep the nightmares from crawling out. Slowly the people passed it by, halting briefly only to spit into the pit, known forever as Whisper's Folly.
Big checked his tuner. “Banging on doors I imagine. No movement for four minutes.”
“And the hole dwellers?”
“There's an overall rise in Anti Qi output, but nothing dramatic to this point. We're diverting power to western substations so Indianapolis-One doesn't surge.”
Whisper changed the view and was looking out over a dark ocean scene. Waves were crashing into foam over a rocky beach. The Flixon was spattered with salty droplets that dissipated then vanished. He poured another drink and drained it quickly. “Have you located Parsnip yet? I want the overload circuit tested before this riot gets out of hand.”
Mr. Big shrugged his muscled shoulders. His stomach growled. “Are we going to have lunch or not?”
“Find that twit, then you'll eat, you big ape.” Whisper slammed down his glass and it skipped off the desk top and fell to the floor, shattering into pieces. He swore and grabbed the carafe by its neck. “Get lost, I have work to do.”
Big knew exactly what work the boss was after, the kind you found at the bottom of one bottle, then another. He backed out of the room and ran toward the machine cavern.
–
Nonon Parsnip was not to be found. He had been down in the hole forcing himself on his latest fancy. She obliged, leading him to a prearranged spot where the fun began.
Jeff had him by the throat and was shaking hard as he could. The area's blip reinforcer raced angrily over their conduits. He felt good, expressing rage as he hadn't done for months. A woman was crouched by the wall, and she jumped up and down, squealing with delight. Barry held hands over his own eyes and talked to himself. Nobody else would ever have listened. “He's had enough, I think,” said Barry quietly, until finally he let down his hands and shouted the words at Jeff.
“He's had enough!”
Jeff threw the swarthy little man down and kicked him. “That's a carrot if I ever saw one,” he said, laughing. Jeff leaned over Nonon Parsnip and ripped the chain off his neck. He wadded it up, key and all, and threw it over the railing into the dark abyss. “That's done.”
“What now?” asked Barry.
Parsnip moaned as Jeff rummaged around roughly through his clothing, then pulled out a scan disk. “To activate the lift,” he said grinning. “But first we get this party going. I mean really going.” The woman shrieked and ran into the tunnel, raising the alarm.
Tina sat heavily at the base of the ledge, knowing she was as good as useless. At this moment she was closer to despair than she had ever been. The revolt was starting, as planned, and now her part, the most important, was doomed to fail. Without access to the lifts, Tina would never be able to allow the hole dwellers an opportunity to escape. The revolt would be for nothing if she couldn't use her leverage, and the worst case scenario would see them all dead. Of course Felicon Whisper would escape, and the infamous Mr. Big, but she was sure nothing would come of it. They would vanish into the ether, sound as an eight-legged tardigrade in its orbiting cocoon.
Tina could hear the sounds of revolt coming out of a tunnel to her left. If the mob found her here she wouldn't last another minute, they'd pick her up and toss her into hell's mouth. She couldn't even imagine the horrors that waited below, would be glad to reach them as a dead woman. Tina pulled out the impact stick and checked it on. She would go out with a fury, feeding the grid in a flash of glory.
A rumble echoed into the chamber and the mob neared. Tina could see their shadows playing on the plumes of smoke that rose in a vortex from the depths. She inched up the wall and stood tall, holding the stick high in front of her face. Behind her the lift doors swished and opened.
“Tina, damn your geneflesh, get in here!” Jeff reached out and pulled her in just as the mob rounded the bend. She sank into his arms and cried when the doors shushed tight.
–
The uproar angered to a frenzy on the hole's first level. What few handlers there were, were either thrown over the railing or stripped bare and harassed. The key to the revolt, Tina had told them, wasn't to cause damage or murder, but to rage wholly without surcease for as long as possible. The sounds of insurrection resounded up the hole from every level until it echoed off the cavern walls in a melee of ear shattering cacophony. The railing surged with electric violence as the negative ions outpaced the network and lined up in staggering wedge before the grid's interceptor channels. Contraptions growing from the walls below level thirty-six sparked and threw pistons, the cavernous machine room billowed with smoke as the rotors whined. Inside the locked room, where the overload switch should be heating up and starting to melt, nothing worked as it was meant to. Instead, the heavy copper pole that Tina had wedged into the glass tubes place was shining like a god, throwing all the power of the raging thousand souls and more into the mix like an orchestra of devils and their titan henchmen.
Mr. Big searched the machine room finding nothing but ravening mechanics and electricians throwing their hands into the air and running for the doors. The only clue he found to Parsnip's whereabouts was a snide comment about his slumming in the hole. Big took off for the lifts. He jumped the unattended checkpoint and waved his scan key at the sensor. When the lift door opened he ran in, punched the mark for level one, then grabbed the impact hammer from his holster and a heavy knife from his belt. The lift shuddered and stopped suddenly, and the door opened. He heard a commotion, saw nothing but the ledge and railing before him, and stepped out. From nowhere a body fell at his feet, and Big tried to hurdle it, only to be blindsided from both ends by two burly men. He fell to the ground swinging madly and connecting. The sound of a crushing skull gave him cause to smile, but a mound of bodies swarmed over and crushed him to the ledge, his face was only inches from the drop off. Mr. Big squirmed under the mass of bodies and turned his head, only to see his missing mechanic looking back at him from dead eyes.
Jeff slapped Barry hard on the back and howled. “Now here's the real treasure, you bastards,” he swore and pressed his foot firmly into the big man's face. “He'll talk, yeah. He'll talk or go over the side, he will.”
–
Big had talked, and whatever happened next never made the light of day. Jeff traveled the distance from level one to thirty-six in mere seconds, his stomach flying up into his mouth with the furious descent. The doors opened just in time, and he pulled her back, then sent them soaring skyward. “Thank the gods,” was all she said after a minute. They floated gently to the upside.
“What now,” Jeff asked, releasing Tina from his embrace.
She thought. “First I need to get to the override circuit, make sure that weasel Parsnip hasn't nixed my replacement switch.”
“Ha,” laughed Jeff. “The little bitch won't have done that. I nixed his wagon myself.”
“Good.” The lift stopped and the door opened. Jeff started to step out, but Tina grabbed his hand. “Wait, before something else can futz up, I need to make sure of something.” She passed the scan disk over the lift wall and a latch opened. Tina fingered a lever and a red button lowered from a chamber above the compartment. She pushed the button and an alarm immediately sounded. “Get out,” she yelled and pushed him.
The door closed and Jeff looked at her. “What the hell was that?” A thunderous boom answered him as smoke flowed out from the shaking door's crevices. After a second the door reopened and they looked into the empty shaft. Bits of debris floated rapidly up the passageway. “That's a grav well!”
“You bet your sweet patootie.” She grabbed Jeff and planted a big kiss on his surprised lips. “Come on,” Tina hollered and pulled him down the hallway.
They took a diverted path around the machine cave and ran up a ramp toward the main offices. Every space they went through was deserted. Outside of the master's lair Tina stopped.
“We got his man, too,” boasted Jeff. “I wouldn't be surprised if he was sucking farts on a trip through the nine circles of hell right now.”
“Whoa,” Tina gave him deference. “Then lead the way, McDuff. But be careful, he might be loaded, but he's crafty!”
Jeff laughed, then pushed the door open gently while standing off to one side. Two shots rang off, striking the door jamb, then they heard the click of an empty chamber.
“Dog!” they heard Whisper call out woefully from inside.
Tina peeked around the corner. “Safe to come in, boss?” she asked cynically “Um, we're sort of in a hurry.” Jeff led the way, followed by Tina who pulled a key out of her pocket and dangled it in the air. Alarms were shrieking in the halls and the light arrays in Whisper's office flashed menacingly. Felicon tapped his desk and a line of numerals projected onto the wall. It was a countdown clock.
Twelve minutes, fifty-five seconds. Fifty-four seconds, fifty-three...
“You're coming with us,” said Tina as Jeff closed his fist around Whisper's collar. The energy czar didn't budge.
“I'm not moving.” He grabbed up a bottle and sloshed the contents into his mouth, spilling much of it down his chin. Jeff jumped back. “Your key won't help you now,” he slurred. “Too much now, too much power to stop. You've created a,” and Felicon winked, “monster. Get out,” he growled and flipped the bottle at them.
They got out, running for the machine room. “I gotta stop it, don't know if everyone can get out!” Tina yelled over the sirens and pounding machinery. Upside, the lift shafts were pushing hole dwellers up and out one a time, depositing them softly within feet of the openings. The escapees ran off toward the fences. Hundreds were rushing the gates and chopping at the enclosures with whatever tools they ascended with, or throwing debris from the launched lifts onto the ground to scramble over.
Tina couldn't know that, she and Jeff only had thoughts for Barry and the thousands who might be stranded in the hole. They sprinted to the override vault and Tina unlocked the door. Fire was spitting over the makeshift fuse, the current was so hot that copper was dripping into a golden puddle on the floor. Tina whipped out her contact stick and started flailing at the bar. After three strikes it fell through the rod and she stumbled forward behind the force of her blow. Jeff grabbed and pulled Tina back by her flashing AQi sash.
The bells and whistles continued to howl. Jeff and Tina stood and looked at each other, as if to say, what now? What else can we possibly do?
Nothing, Tina admitted to herself. She grabbed Jeff's hand and took off like a squirrel for nuts, dodging sparks and leaping flames for the upside transit. “We'll never make it,” she heard him yell. They ran, Jeff hurtled a railing enclosure and caught Tina as she vaulted it. The exit was within yards and Jeff screamed and pumped his fist in the air. “We're coming, Barry,” he shouted loudly.
--
He settled, and folded in the k-mesh wings of his flight suit, picturing her face against the backdrop of a perfect fall sunset. The air from the summit of the old fire tower was moist that night, and Jonathon Feagul watched as the mist formed a deep blanket of October haze over the island treetops. He was sitting on the corrugate roof, chewing on a stalk of wheat grass, when he heard the blast and from his perch saw the western sky light up. As the brightened sky began to dim, he could make out plumes of fire leaping in torrents from the earth. Below him the very ground began to rumble and from where he sat, Jonathon saw and heard the reservoir waters splashing and frothing. Suddenly towers of super heated water leaped skyward and the islands jumped, then settled and started to sink beneath the towering trees that abruptly burst into flames. The shock waves followed and tossed him, shattering the struts of his suit and Jonathon spilled to the earth, laying crumpled in the grass.
The Four Corners went dark, growing to light only where fires slowly ignited throughout the city, throwing demonic shadows onto the facades of skyscrapers. Years passed before a glimmer of the truth emerged, as the city repaired and renewed itself with a fresh identity and a healthy power source. Monuments were erected, statues unveiled. Deep in the heart of Indianapolis the mayor cut a yellow ribbon and spread his arms wide, welcoming his people into the newest landmark park. A tremendous green space and towering spire dedicated to the most revered unfortunates in the history of Vonneguts Four Corners.
Behind the spire in a thicket of briar hedge, lay a round brick patio, weathered and scorched by fire. It encircled a hole, dug deep and covered by a Klantien grate, for safety and to keep the nightmares from crawling out. Slowly the people passed it by, halting briefly only to spit into the pit, known forever as Whisper's Folly.
You can't melt Qi twice - part (
“What were you doing down on level twenty-three?” he asked. Felicon Whisper for the first time in three weeks was out of his bed and dressed. He had found Tina in one of the machine rooms walking around the huge el joints that twisted around the cavity like so many spaghetti strands. She wondered how the chief mechanic Nonon Parsnip could keep track of anything down here. Tina tapped on a gauge then looked over her shoulder. Whisper was wearing a white suit, open at the collar, and limping toward her on his cane. She whistled.
“Wow Boss, you clean up good. What brings you down to the dungeon today?”
Whisper stopped a few paces in front of her. Mr. Big followed him up. “The twenty-third level, please.” Now it was Felicon's turn to tap, with his cane.
Tina had been a lot of places, on many different levels. It was a way of clouding her footsteps. Go everywhere, and no place is significant. She didn't know what made the twenty-third so important, excepting that she went there more often. “I was visiting an old friend. Do you remember? It was the first level in the hole that you stranded me. I was revisiting old memories.” In fact Tina had gone back down to that level to present the old miner she had met there with a new pickaxe. While she had wandered the outer ledge, holding tightly to the pulsating railing, Tina could hear the echoes he made working away at the wall, widening his cubbyhole, but she never found him. Eventually Tina left the tool behind and rode the lift back to the surface, breathing deeply the air above the hole and shuddering at the image of the gaping void.
Her heart raced looking at Whisper and the big man behind him. Suddenly she remembered the miners name. “Malfrog Duchere,” she said out loud, then self consciously bit her lip.
“Hm,” mumbled Whisper. “I need you by my side more often. No need to wander about uselessly.” She couldn't see his eyes under the shadows that the humongous equipment cast. “Meet us back in the office, we'll have lunch.” With that they turned around and wended their way out from the maze of machinery. Tina sighed and slumped against a pipe feeling a bead of salty sweat roll down into her stinging eye.
Tina checked the tuner strap on her wrist. The hour was almost noon, and she couldn't remember a time when Whisper had an afternoon meal before one. She hurried through the mechanized cavity to the hole section. Over the last weeks she had been visiting every lift and accessing the inside control panel, checking settings, then latching the covering. When the time came, Tina would activate a switch to open the lift doors and fire the cages in synch, thus clearing the shafts and energizing the antigrav wells. A network of moles were even now stirring up the hole dwellers against the system, and with the caches of excavation tools she had uncovered in the blueprints, they would make a formidable army loose in the facility. Up top, Whisper and his goons would only watch and laugh as the angry men and women stormed inside the hole. There was nothing the holers could do, and nobody down there to hurt, other than themselves. Tina fingered the all important key in her pocket and knew they wouldn't be smiling anymore when they knew the real danger.
Time was short, she thought, but the lifts were fast. Tina was certain she could make every level within an hour, and begin the chain reaction that would topple Whisper's evil regime. She rushed past the checkpoint, waving her badge at the scanner, and boarded the first lift. Tina figured she would start at level one and work her way down, then ride up nonstop. She had one last important thing to do before making the lunch meeting, and if all went according to plan, they wouldn't have time to miss her.
The lift opened at level one. Tina jumped out of the open door and pulled the impact stick from her belt, then banged it down onto the railing. The violence of the strike caused the flux to surge and a powerful beam raced away in both directions from the point of impact. Watchful hole dwellers would see the surge and take it as a cue to begin the revolt. Tina hopped back into the lift and continued down the line.
There was hardly any time to think, the process was so quick, and before long Tina was clear down to the bottom level, ledge number thirty-six. So far she had expended forty minutes. She hopped from the cage and slammed the impact stick onto the railing. The impulses of light jumped and raced over the curving band. Tina looked up and saw an arc of light overhead. The day was cloudy, but a soft shimmer of illumination filtered into the hole, even at this depth. She looked over the railing and saw nothing but inky blackness. The exhaust from machinery dug into the pit below clouded the expanse between the railings, riding on a curtain of air to evacuate the fumes upside. Tina coughed, wondering if anyone could brave the stench long enough to witness the signal. There was nothing left to do here, Tina thought. Now she could only hope that their sullen natures would allow the hole dweller's adequate rage to boil up and over, forcing the system into overload. Tina turned to board the lift, but the door was shut. Her scan key was useless.
concluded in What happens to the hole, when the Qi is gone? part 10.
“Wow Boss, you clean up good. What brings you down to the dungeon today?”
Whisper stopped a few paces in front of her. Mr. Big followed him up. “The twenty-third level, please.” Now it was Felicon's turn to tap, with his cane.
Tina had been a lot of places, on many different levels. It was a way of clouding her footsteps. Go everywhere, and no place is significant. She didn't know what made the twenty-third so important, excepting that she went there more often. “I was visiting an old friend. Do you remember? It was the first level in the hole that you stranded me. I was revisiting old memories.” In fact Tina had gone back down to that level to present the old miner she had met there with a new pickaxe. While she had wandered the outer ledge, holding tightly to the pulsating railing, Tina could hear the echoes he made working away at the wall, widening his cubbyhole, but she never found him. Eventually Tina left the tool behind and rode the lift back to the surface, breathing deeply the air above the hole and shuddering at the image of the gaping void.
Her heart raced looking at Whisper and the big man behind him. Suddenly she remembered the miners name. “Malfrog Duchere,” she said out loud, then self consciously bit her lip.
“Hm,” mumbled Whisper. “I need you by my side more often. No need to wander about uselessly.” She couldn't see his eyes under the shadows that the humongous equipment cast. “Meet us back in the office, we'll have lunch.” With that they turned around and wended their way out from the maze of machinery. Tina sighed and slumped against a pipe feeling a bead of salty sweat roll down into her stinging eye.
Tina checked the tuner strap on her wrist. The hour was almost noon, and she couldn't remember a time when Whisper had an afternoon meal before one. She hurried through the mechanized cavity to the hole section. Over the last weeks she had been visiting every lift and accessing the inside control panel, checking settings, then latching the covering. When the time came, Tina would activate a switch to open the lift doors and fire the cages in synch, thus clearing the shafts and energizing the antigrav wells. A network of moles were even now stirring up the hole dwellers against the system, and with the caches of excavation tools she had uncovered in the blueprints, they would make a formidable army loose in the facility. Up top, Whisper and his goons would only watch and laugh as the angry men and women stormed inside the hole. There was nothing the holers could do, and nobody down there to hurt, other than themselves. Tina fingered the all important key in her pocket and knew they wouldn't be smiling anymore when they knew the real danger.
Time was short, she thought, but the lifts were fast. Tina was certain she could make every level within an hour, and begin the chain reaction that would topple Whisper's evil regime. She rushed past the checkpoint, waving her badge at the scanner, and boarded the first lift. Tina figured she would start at level one and work her way down, then ride up nonstop. She had one last important thing to do before making the lunch meeting, and if all went according to plan, they wouldn't have time to miss her.
The lift opened at level one. Tina jumped out of the open door and pulled the impact stick from her belt, then banged it down onto the railing. The violence of the strike caused the flux to surge and a powerful beam raced away in both directions from the point of impact. Watchful hole dwellers would see the surge and take it as a cue to begin the revolt. Tina hopped back into the lift and continued down the line.
There was hardly any time to think, the process was so quick, and before long Tina was clear down to the bottom level, ledge number thirty-six. So far she had expended forty minutes. She hopped from the cage and slammed the impact stick onto the railing. The impulses of light jumped and raced over the curving band. Tina looked up and saw an arc of light overhead. The day was cloudy, but a soft shimmer of illumination filtered into the hole, even at this depth. She looked over the railing and saw nothing but inky blackness. The exhaust from machinery dug into the pit below clouded the expanse between the railings, riding on a curtain of air to evacuate the fumes upside. Tina coughed, wondering if anyone could brave the stench long enough to witness the signal. There was nothing left to do here, Tina thought. Now she could only hope that their sullen natures would allow the hole dweller's adequate rage to boil up and over, forcing the system into overload. Tina turned to board the lift, but the door was shut. Her scan key was useless.
concluded in What happens to the hole, when the Qi is gone? part 10.
Friday, March 9, 2012
Like chalk and Qi - part *
Until she had seen him, Barry, a face she recognized, a man she could identify with, Tina had been going through the motions. It had taken months to recover from the torture she'd inflicted upon herself. Tina had withdrawn so far into herself and had purged her emotions so effectively that nothing seemed to matter. Not her former life, not even the tortured lives of the countless thousands around her. She didn't care for money, or prestige. She had neither and she needed nothing. Seeing Barry changed everything. Jeff wasn't far away. The handlers knew how to make the most of a bad situation so the two men were placed on the same level and unit. At first Barry tried to avoid Jeff. But after all, they only had each other. They quarreled often, but stuck together and sometimes that was the difference between life and death. Upon the rim of the chasm, under the cover of darkness, the three worked out a plan that had every chance of failing, and their fear converted to negative ohms fed the AQi grid.
It wasn't unusual for Tina to be seen walking the machinery caverns. There, huge turbines powered by the output of the cringing thousands fed the grid. It all worked counter to the machinery in the Four Corners, but the twists and turns of many contrary gears made the systems mesh. Tutored by her master, Felicon Whisper, Tina had a menial grasp of the ins and outs of the contraption. In one tiny room locked behind closed doors there was a glass tube that protected the machinery from catastrophic overload. She walked by it almost every day, stopping to check the lock and the paper seal across the door jamb. Only two people held the required keys to gain entrance, the head mechanic and Whisper. The mechanic was an uptight little wrench monkey who could ever be found squirreling his way in and around pipes and pistons. He ate in the machine room, drank in the tool shed, and slept in the caves with the forlorn and demented. Nonon Parsnip was his oily name and the key was never off his chain. The second key rode in the pocket with her master, but now more than ever, Felicon Whisper was dead to the world he had created. He drank nonstop and left the running of his empire to Mr. Big and his newest lackey, Tina. She obliged him in everything, but it wasn't much of a hardship. Whisper's latest mood was rage fueled by the ill drink, but he never remembered the outbursts and spent most of his time passed out in his office. It was a bad combination, mellow and Felicon Whisper; like chalk and cheese. They had made up a comfortable bed there for him and hired a staff to care for him. Accountants and muscle did the rest, he was barely missed.
Mr. Big was sitting in their smaller office, chewing on a sandwich when Tina asked him the question. She was reviewing a procedure manual on evacuation of the hole. It was a binder with hardly more than a dozen pages. “Is this a joke?” she asked, throwing the manual onto a desk.
“What?”
“Evacuation in case of emergency.” Tina patted the desk. “What's the point?”
Big shrugged. “They're just covering their tracks. All of the safeguards are in place, but they've never been tested, and nobody really cares about the holers, just so long as we can get out.”
“What safeguards?” Tina asked. She'd only been in the system for a few months, and evacuation had never come up in conversation.
Big swallowed the last of his sandwich. “The secondary lifts. There are a hundred or so and the shafts are actually anti-grav wells. Once they're switched on, the current is constant and whoever goes in gets shot up and out.”
“But the lifts...”
“On rockets. They blast up and out of the way. You don't want to be in one of those when the red button is pushed.”
“Oh, but what a ride!” They both had a good laugh over that.
Tina had moles on every level now. She routinely went up and down the hole with a map and a tuner guide. For protection Tina wore a belt that charged her personal space with an electric repellant. She didn't trust the hole dwellers, but more than that she didn't want any system guards spying on her and reporting to Big. Tina knew his trust only went so far, but it was her threat to Big's power that scared him most. Mr. Big had no inkling of the trouble she was actually brewing.
continued in part 9, You can't melt Qi twice.
It wasn't unusual for Tina to be seen walking the machinery caverns. There, huge turbines powered by the output of the cringing thousands fed the grid. It all worked counter to the machinery in the Four Corners, but the twists and turns of many contrary gears made the systems mesh. Tutored by her master, Felicon Whisper, Tina had a menial grasp of the ins and outs of the contraption. In one tiny room locked behind closed doors there was a glass tube that protected the machinery from catastrophic overload. She walked by it almost every day, stopping to check the lock and the paper seal across the door jamb. Only two people held the required keys to gain entrance, the head mechanic and Whisper. The mechanic was an uptight little wrench monkey who could ever be found squirreling his way in and around pipes and pistons. He ate in the machine room, drank in the tool shed, and slept in the caves with the forlorn and demented. Nonon Parsnip was his oily name and the key was never off his chain. The second key rode in the pocket with her master, but now more than ever, Felicon Whisper was dead to the world he had created. He drank nonstop and left the running of his empire to Mr. Big and his newest lackey, Tina. She obliged him in everything, but it wasn't much of a hardship. Whisper's latest mood was rage fueled by the ill drink, but he never remembered the outbursts and spent most of his time passed out in his office. It was a bad combination, mellow and Felicon Whisper; like chalk and cheese. They had made up a comfortable bed there for him and hired a staff to care for him. Accountants and muscle did the rest, he was barely missed.
Mr. Big was sitting in their smaller office, chewing on a sandwich when Tina asked him the question. She was reviewing a procedure manual on evacuation of the hole. It was a binder with hardly more than a dozen pages. “Is this a joke?” she asked, throwing the manual onto a desk.
“What?”
“Evacuation in case of emergency.” Tina patted the desk. “What's the point?”
Big shrugged. “They're just covering their tracks. All of the safeguards are in place, but they've never been tested, and nobody really cares about the holers, just so long as we can get out.”
“What safeguards?” Tina asked. She'd only been in the system for a few months, and evacuation had never come up in conversation.
Big swallowed the last of his sandwich. “The secondary lifts. There are a hundred or so and the shafts are actually anti-grav wells. Once they're switched on, the current is constant and whoever goes in gets shot up and out.”
“But the lifts...”
“On rockets. They blast up and out of the way. You don't want to be in one of those when the red button is pushed.”
“Oh, but what a ride!” They both had a good laugh over that.
Tina had moles on every level now. She routinely went up and down the hole with a map and a tuner guide. For protection Tina wore a belt that charged her personal space with an electric repellant. She didn't trust the hole dwellers, but more than that she didn't want any system guards spying on her and reporting to Big. Tina knew his trust only went so far, but it was her threat to Big's power that scared him most. Mr. Big had no inkling of the trouble she was actually brewing.
continued in part 9, You can't melt Qi twice.
Qi it, the Cops! - part &
The control room was as far away from the hole as they could get. Still underground, maybe a mile at this point, the air shafts overhead dug as straight as possible into the space, providing fresh air and real sunlight, albeit from countless mirrors and reflective conduits. Tina slid the impact stick into her belt and stepped back. Her sash monitored the degree of malice she shed, or empathy. In Tina's case it showed no significant traces of either. She was still a tool of High Power, working in a separate, clandestine division, but she wasn't broken and she'd made it clear, she wouldn't be.
AQi was the bastard child of High Power, and the only reason the company was still operating. Felican Whisper had taken his idea a hundred miles southwest from Vonnegut's Four Corners, into the quarried sink holes of former Bloomington, now a rubble of deserted mines among the detritus of a once thriving educational community. He took ruins and converted them to the pinnacle of energy output. Where High Power had taken positive ions, Qi, and turned them into the grid that powered a city and state, AQi had gathered the morose and dogged peoples into his hell holes, knowing full well that anger and despair were much more powerful than your average self satisfaction. Only out and out glee carried more of a charge, but happiness was much much harder to produce than desperation. Felicon Whisper took those that drained the system and converted their abject sorrow into raw sustainable power: Anti Qi.
Tina policed the equipment levels, and kept her new master in good company. Felicon Whisper was sodden and incoherent most of the time. A diet of mellow and hydrating dinks was all he needed, as long as production held out. His goons never stopped supplying the hole with new energy sources. They made sure the slaves were fed and watered, and otherwise miserable. As these dregs of society were used up, their bodies were flung by trebuchet into the midst of the abyss, doomed to rot where they fell at the depths of hell. However deep that was nobody seemed to know, but sometimes the memory of death wafted up from the infernal crypt to perfume the stale air.
She never made it back to the fourth quarter – was missing, presumed dead, but her former lover never stopped looking. Jonathon Feagul flew from rooftop to rooftop searching the sections of Speedway and finding nothing. He often sat across from the Conch Villaheights peering from the spires at the short balcony of the last place she had been seen alive. Then he would swoop down and away over the lake amongst the tall conifers.
Barry crouched among the wicked on the first level of Whisper's hole. He was a respectable supplier to the grid, always sad, often frightened. He sat with his back to the wall, dipping his fingers into a bowl of gruel and sucking on them. The food dispensers had shut down minutes earlier and someone was bound to want more to eat, maybe his. He gulped it down, then rose up and dropped the dish into a slot at the stone wall. A sour faced woman in the next crevice growled at him and lashed out with her sharp fingernails, but he ignored her and moved on, trying to hug the wall. The railing scared Barry and his pulse raced whenever he had to slink along it.
“Barry,” she said softly. Tina blocked him, but he looked at the ground and shrunk into his coverall. Barry tried to turn and go back the other way, but Tina held his arm and whispered his name again. “Barry.
“It's Tina.”
continued in Like chalk and Qi, part 8
AQi was the bastard child of High Power, and the only reason the company was still operating. Felican Whisper had taken his idea a hundred miles southwest from Vonnegut's Four Corners, into the quarried sink holes of former Bloomington, now a rubble of deserted mines among the detritus of a once thriving educational community. He took ruins and converted them to the pinnacle of energy output. Where High Power had taken positive ions, Qi, and turned them into the grid that powered a city and state, AQi had gathered the morose and dogged peoples into his hell holes, knowing full well that anger and despair were much more powerful than your average self satisfaction. Only out and out glee carried more of a charge, but happiness was much much harder to produce than desperation. Felicon Whisper took those that drained the system and converted their abject sorrow into raw sustainable power: Anti Qi.
Tina policed the equipment levels, and kept her new master in good company. Felicon Whisper was sodden and incoherent most of the time. A diet of mellow and hydrating dinks was all he needed, as long as production held out. His goons never stopped supplying the hole with new energy sources. They made sure the slaves were fed and watered, and otherwise miserable. As these dregs of society were used up, their bodies were flung by trebuchet into the midst of the abyss, doomed to rot where they fell at the depths of hell. However deep that was nobody seemed to know, but sometimes the memory of death wafted up from the infernal crypt to perfume the stale air.
She never made it back to the fourth quarter – was missing, presumed dead, but her former lover never stopped looking. Jonathon Feagul flew from rooftop to rooftop searching the sections of Speedway and finding nothing. He often sat across from the Conch Villaheights peering from the spires at the short balcony of the last place she had been seen alive. Then he would swoop down and away over the lake amongst the tall conifers.
Barry crouched among the wicked on the first level of Whisper's hole. He was a respectable supplier to the grid, always sad, often frightened. He sat with his back to the wall, dipping his fingers into a bowl of gruel and sucking on them. The food dispensers had shut down minutes earlier and someone was bound to want more to eat, maybe his. He gulped it down, then rose up and dropped the dish into a slot at the stone wall. A sour faced woman in the next crevice growled at him and lashed out with her sharp fingernails, but he ignored her and moved on, trying to hug the wall. The railing scared Barry and his pulse raced whenever he had to slink along it.
“Barry,” she said softly. Tina blocked him, but he looked at the ground and shrunk into his coverall. Barry tried to turn and go back the other way, but Tina held his arm and whispered his name again. “Barry.
“It's Tina.”
continued in Like chalk and Qi, part 8
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